


an endless road to rediscover

by FaithlessBex



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempted at least, Bruce Banner-centric, Bruce and Tony grew up together, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Reunions, The Jarvises adopted Bruce, no editing we die like men, not shown only mentioned as in canon, set during the first avengers movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-05-23 09:31:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14931681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FaithlessBex/pseuds/FaithlessBex
Summary: au of the avengers where bruce and tony grew up together after bruce's mother died and his father was sent to a facility....“finally, someone who speaks english.” stark was grinning, dr. banner smiling back in a way that was clearly more genuine than anything steve had seen yet. he watched agent romanov shift slightly, her brow furrowing as stark pulled banner in for a tight hug. “you should have called me. i’d have helped.”





	1. Chapter 1

“Finally, someone who speaks English.” Stark was grinning, Dr. Banner smiling back in a way that was clearly more genuine than anything Steve had seen yet. He watched Agent Romanov shift slightly, her brow furrowing as Stark pulled Banner in for a tight hug. “You should have called me. I’d have helped.”

“Not here, Tony.” Banner looked around, head ducking slightly as his gaze swept over the assembled agents and Thor and Steve himself.

“You tell people you care about when you turn into giant rage monsters.”

“ _Tony._ ”

“Dr. Banner is only here to help us find the Cube.” Fury showed no surprise and Steve was hard pressed to decide whether that was because he already knew the pair was close or because he was that good. “You two can catch up while you work.”

Steve took the opening. “Start with that stick of his. It might be magical, but it seems to work like HYDRA weapons did.”

…

Tony waited until they were hard at work before beginning his interrogation which, in all honesty, Bruce was grateful for. It was more than the other ever gave him when they were children and Bruce had said something Tony disagreed with. “You know, you should come by the Tower some time. Top ten floors all R and D. You’d love it, it’s a candy land.” Tony paused for a brief moment, genuine concern in his eyes. “It can be home. Rhodey and Pepper miss you. You’ll love Happy.”

 Bruce sighed, rubbing at his eyes. “Last time I was in New York… I’m a threat, Tony. I broke Harlem.”

A familiar grin was his answer as Tony settled next to him. “Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension, no surprises.” And really, he should have seen the zapper coming. It was classic Tony. The Hulk stirred slightly in his mind, but Bruce pushed him down as Steve shouted. “Nothing? You’re too used to me. Or you smoked a big bag on your way here.”

“Stark, you threatened the safety of everyone on this ship.” Steve scolded while Bruce fought a smile. Captain America scolding Tony. Miss Peggy would have loved to see it. The blond head shifted to him. “Uh, no offense, Doc.”

Bruce waved him off. “Don’t worry about it. I wouldn’t have agreed if I didn’t think I could handle it. And this is pretty classic Tony anyway. Though,” and Bruce turned his attention back to him, “you’ve mellowed a bit since then. It suits you.”

“You seem to know each other pretty well.”

“Oh yeah, Brucie-bear is basically my brother. Family friend took him in when we were kids, practically inseparable until _someone_ decided they weren’t going to MIT.” Bruce rolled his eyes, getting back to work. “And then of course he vanished off the face of the Earth without even a polite ‘bye Tony, see you whenever’. Not that I’m upset.”

Which, of course, meant he was very upset and Bruce would hear about it when this whole thing was done. He’d probably involve Pepper, too.

“Yeah well,” Steve looked between them, clearly somewhat put out. “You should be working, not harassing Dr. Banner. The cube is the problem we need to focus on now.”

“You think I’m not?” Tony’s voice was offended – genuinely, it seemed. Maybe it was because it was coming from Steve. All this time and still the Howard issues, not that Bruce could really talk. “Why did Fury call us in? Why now, why not before? What isn’t he telling us? I can’t do the equation unless I have all the variables.”

Time to step in. “Loki called Tony out specifically. ‘A warm light for all mankind’, he said. He was talking about the tower. The arc reactor is cutting edge technology, self-sustaining. It’s clean energy. So why not call Tony in on the project if it’s really meant as a power source?”

“Which is why I have JARVIS hacking into SHIELD’s files right now.”

“I’m sorry, you’re-“

Bruce cut Steve off. “You can’t say this doesn’t smell funky, Steve.” He watched the conflict play across the Captain’s face before the man turned and strode off.

“ _That_ ’s the guy dad never shut up about?” Tony scoffed. And there were the issues again. “Wonder if they shouldn’t have kept him on the ice.”

“Don’t be too hard on the guy. It’s tough waking up to everything you know being gone.” He could sympathize with the feeling. “The structure is probably the only thing keeping him together. When this is over, Tony… Give him Miss Peggy’s address. It might help.”

Something flashed in Tony’s eyes, something that filled Bruce with dread. “You really should have called, Bruce. Aunt Peggy’s not doing great. I mean, she’s good physically, but mentally…” He shook his head. “It goes day to day. She called me Howard last time. Didn’t have the heart to correct her.” He cut Bruce off before he could say anything. “I’d really like you to stay. I don’t think you’re the threat you think you are.”

“Tony-“

“No, no, listen. Bruce, listen to me. The arc reactor, it’s not just a power source for the suit. It’s stopping shrapnel from entering my heart. It’s keeping me alive. It’s part of me. A terrible privilege. I read your files and watched the footage a hundred times over. That gamma radiation should have killed you, but it didn’t. The Hulk? Took a hell of a lot of effort to protect Betty a year ago.”

He didn’t want to hear it. “That’s a nice sentiment, Tony, but if you’re saying the Hulk saved my life then I’ve got one question for you. Why?”

Tony stared at him, silent. It was unnerving, almost. A quiet Tony was dangerous, it meant he was putting all his energy into the problem he saw and if that problem was Bruce’s self-confidence? He had no idea what solution his brother would come up with. “Well, I suppose we’ll see, won’t we?”

And just like that, Tony had gone back to work, leaving Bruce staring at empty space, dumbstruck.

…

He’d given up on arguing with Bruce. The truth was, it was just nice to have the other man there _to_ argue with. Five years of nothing and a year of hacking into the military to make sure they hadn’t made progress on their hunt for his brother and finally they were together again. That it had clearly made a dent in Bruce’s already fragile confidence was more upsetting than the argument itself. Still, it was a blessing cloaked in disaster when Fury swept in. They must have finally found the bug. Disappointing. They were slow.

It was a pleasant surprise to have Rogers back him up – data was well and good, but physical proof was hard to deny. And it meant Spangles listened to him. Or listened to Bruce. Either way, results. Movement from Bruce caught his attention as the other man looked at the newly entered Romanov, Thor just behind her. “Did you know about this?”

Oh. He was angry. Tony was intimately familiar with that tone, lips dipping into a frown as she spoke. “You want to consider removing yourself from this environment, doctor?”

“I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed.”

“Maybe you should remove yourself, Natalie. Or is it Natasha today, so hard to remember.”

“Stark-“

“Tony stay out of this please.” He raised his hands in surrender, letting Bruce take the reins. There was no fighting when he used that voice. “I’m not leaving because you get a little twitchy. I want to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to create weapons of mass destruction.”

He didn’t expect Fury to answer, and yet- “Because of him.” And a finger pointed at Thor. “Last year an alien grudge match leveled a small town. We learned that we are hopelessly, hilariously outgunned and they’re not the only threat. The world is filling up with people that can’t be matched or controlled.”

“Your work with the Tesseract signaled to the rest of the galaxy that the Earth was ready for a higher form of war. It’s what drew Loki and his allies.”

There was a weird buzzing and Tony’s vision bled red. Frustration mounted as the room descended into arguments, all of his pent up resentment at Fury, SHIELD, and Cap rising to the surface. He dully registered Bruce’s own voice rising, his brother in all but name and blood standing tall and staring down a god. It should have made him proud but there was too much anger. It continued for minutes more before Bruce shouting brought them all to a halt.

“Where!? You rented my _room_!” They’d all known what that cell Loki was in was designed for, no one could deny it.

“The cell was just-”

But Bruce didn’t let Fury finish. “Just in case you needed to kill me but you can’t!” Oh god. “I know.” No. “I _tried_.” Tony’s heart stopped. Bruce just looked around, meeting everyone’s eyes but his. “I got low. I didn’t see an end so I put a bullet in my mouth and the _other guy_ spit it out. So I moved on, I focused on helping other people. I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanov? You wanna know how I stay calm?” The scepter was in his hands. When had Bruce picked it up?

The monitor beeped, miraculously breaking the moment. Bruce stared down at it himself, confusion warring with the remnant anger on his face even as he set the scepter back on the table. The agents parted for him. “Sorry kids, you don’t get to see my party trick after all.”

Yeah, they were going to have a long talk after this.


	2. Chapter 2

Thor is more observant than most give him credit for. It’s why the first moment he sees Stark and Banner interact he knows they are brothers. Not in name, not in blood, but in spirit – the way he and Loki once were without knowing. It’s why he takes the responsibility of subduing the doctor after his – quite phenomenal – transformation. This, he thinks, hammer swinging hard into green flesh, is part of what had the other humans so concerned around the otherwise unassuming human. All except Stark.

His heart pangs for his own brother, locked in a cage but still wreaking this unimaginable chaos for reasons Thor cannot bring himself to comprehend.

He loses Banner and so follows his heart to Loki’s – Banner’s, his mind reminds him traitorously – cage. He’s not thinking clearly and that’s what has always given his brother the upper hand. He’s forced to watch, trapped, as the agent of SHIELD is felled by his brother. An honorable death, but one that tears him apart from the inside.

The cage falls and Thor allows himself a moment of regret for allowing Stark to lose his brother again so shortly after he had regained him.

* * *

Natasha understands Tony. Rather, she thought she did. The bravado and sarcasm and cutting words that hide a man tired and broken and determined to leave the world a better place than he made it no matter who wants him to stop. A man who was a monster trying to fix a broken world.

She understands Bruce. A scientist who got in over his head, a man who’s childhood and traumas created a side of him he’d never wanted to give into to the point that it had developed a life of it’s own. A man whose attempts to make the world better turned him into – in his eyes – a monster.

She understands them both better and worse now and she’s going to grill Fury on why their relationship wasn’t anywhere in either of their files. Knowledge was as much a weapon as guns or arrows or shields were and he’d intentionally let her go into both situations under prepared and under informed.

Tony calls them to ask if Bruce has made it back to them yet and, when the scientist shows up looking worse for wear and tired on an old motorbike with new clothes, Natasha can’t quite bring herself to be entirely surprised. Stark had Banner pegged.

“Stark? We got him.”

“Bruce?” And there was no way Natasha was missing the sheer relief in Tony’s voice as he said the other man’s name.

“Just like you said.”

“Then tell him we’re going to have words once this is over. And to suit up, the party’s being brought to you.”

Iron Man turns a corner towards them and they’re greeted with exactly what he meant and then there’s no more time to consider the two scientists. They’re at war and she’ll be damned if they lose it.

* * *

The first time Clint gets to see the pair really interacting is after the battle’s over. Stark is alive and the Hulk is doting over him in a way oddly familiar to him. It’s only after Banner’s back to himself and Stark has shoved clothes that are suspiciously perfect for him that it really hits him.

They’ve got history. An intimate, long history that leaves them both more comfortable with each other than almost any other person. He sees the others look at them, Natasha’s face almost unreadable but years of friendship tells him she’s still trying to figure out every piece that Fury and their files don’t tell them.

And then the restaurant is invaded – Pepper Potts and Colonel James Rhodes and a man Clint recognizes from Stark’s file as Happy. The colonel stops, eyes rocketing up in surprise as he looks over their group, his eyes locked on Banner. Banner met his gaze, expression shifting rapidly from terror to recognition to a sort of resigned sheepishness while Stark watched, his own face going from worry to rapid amusement even as Potts started scolding him.

“Hey James.”

“Bruce.”

And then Rhodes smiled widely, wedging his way next to Banner – and so next to Clint. “He’s been worried sick over you, man. Been making Ross’s life hell to get back at him for chasing you off for so long. You should have called us, you know we’d have helped.”

“Tony said the same thing. I couldn’t, Jim. Not with the Hulk-”

“Bullshit.”

There was a loud, false gasp from Stark – clearly just noticing the private conversation. “You can’t use swears here, Rhodey. Think of Bruce’s delicate ears.” Banner let out a loud groan as Rhodes laughed, a soft mutter of “I’m going back to India” highlighting his now red face.

* * *

“Nick.”

“Stark. You want to know about Dr. Banner’s file.”

“If you’re in a sharing mood.”

Nick Fury sighed, long and loud. “Think what you will about your father, Tony, but he was dedicated to keeping both of you safe from this weird world we live in. He couldn’t protect you from the risks the name Stark brought with it, but he could with Banner. Ana and Edwin Jarvis got a second child to take care of, Bruce got a stable home life, a friend that was on his level, and none of the risk of being Howard Stark’s son. It’s been need to know information since then, never written down.”

Tony snorted. “Because SHIELD is made up of paranoid bastards?”

“And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

**Author's Note:**

> why natasha doesn't know bruce and tony's history will be explained in the next chapter. some dialogue was taken directly from the movie, other parts combined and paraphrased. i take no credit for things directly from the movie.
> 
> inspiration from this came to me on my bruce banner tumblr rp blog sciencebanner.  
> you can also catch me on my writing blog at faithlessbex.


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